Vitamin C antagonists can raise histamine levels ????

Update 11/17/14: I am no longer sure about this. I don’t know enough about how these nutrients interact re: histamine.

Like many people with a tendency towards high histamine, I’ve discovered that vitamin C can lower it to some extent, which is why it’s so famously used for colds. I’ve also found that supplementing with C’s cofactors can raise my histamine by competing with C. High doses of these nutrients, or long-term use of not-so-high doses, will eventually bring on that spacy, can’t-do-crap feeling. As I’ve explained elsewhere, most nutrients that interact with each other are cofactors at low doses — they work to increase the efficiency of each other — but at high doses they become antagonists and start competing for absorption.

I’ve had this experience with the following supplements:

selenium

folate in the form of methylfolate

iron

amino acids

Reasons you might be running low on vitamin C include stress, wonky adrenals, lousy diet, or high copper levels. Apparently vitamin C can also lower cortisol, but since I just learned that 20 minutes ago I cn’t say I have any experience with using C for that. I tend to use calcium and Holy Basil to take the edge off that lovely, high-cortisol jittery, wired feeling.

Herein please find

...a record of my successes and failures trying to solve a bunch of health annoyances without resorting to prescription drugs. I also write about news and research on the roles of nutritional deficiencies and the environment on human health, and about non-Rx health treatments I hear about. More about me...